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6/28/05

Aimee Sweet Aimee Sweet Aimee Sweet Aimee Sweet Aimee Sweet Aimee Sweet Aimee Sweet Aimee Sweet

I run into Penthouse Pet (August 1998 when she was 20) Aimee Sweet, who's come outside with her husband to have a cigarette.

Duke: "When you were a girl, what did you want to be when you grew up?"

Aimee: "Out of Rhode Island.

"I wanted to be an actress, or at one point, I wanted to be an ACLU lawyer.

"I was a late bloomer. I was into theater, sports, student council, honors student. I was a little virginal girl. I'd smoke pot and drink beer with the guys. I was a good Catholic girl. My parents were very involved. They came to every softball game, every school play.

"I moved to California at age 19 with $500 in my pocket and no car."

Aimee operates her own site, AimeeSweet.com (launched in May 1999), with Dreamweaver. She also has ModelCash.com.

Aimee: "When I first started, the internet was like the Wild Wild West. You could bill members $40 a month and not update. Now I bill $24 a month, but I do chat every day. I do webcam shows. I update my members forum every day. I put way more effort in than I ever did. I never thought I'd work this hard. I never thought I'd be a computer nerd.

"I like to go to the internet shows. I'm not a porn star per se. I've done adult films but they're all soft.

"I have Angel Cassidey in my program. I'm going to have Nikita Lee, Justine Jolie [and any model whose last name ends in an eeeeee sound]."

Duke: "So you're not going to be doing hardcore to get money for cocaine?"

She laughs.

Aimee's husband (John D) of six-and-a-half-years (they've been together nine) looks on amused. He says he reads my site every day. He runs Dannicash.com.

Aimee: "We're both computer nerds. I just happen to look good in pictures."

Duke: "Are you still active with Penthouse?"

Aimee: "I haven't talked to them since the new owners took over. I'm still trying to get a box of fricken' magazines out of them. They're like, 'We're not giving out any back issues right now.'"

Sweet sells autographed copies of her issue of Penthouse for $30.

Aimee: "I'm all scared of interviewing with you. Oh s---, what's going to be on your blog tomorrow?"

Duke: "Did your parents come to your Penthouse shoot?"

Aimee: "No. I was so afraid to tell my parents that I stopped talking to them for a month. I was crying myself to sleep thinking I was going to get disowned. My mom knew something was up. She said, 'I heard you were in those movies.' I said, no, I was just in Penthouse. She said, oh, ok. She went out and bought it. My little Catholic mom from Rhode Island. She was completely supportive.

"I'm really proud of what I do.

"I never thought I was pretty. On the East Coast, no one compliments you or tells you nice things."

Duke: "How did you [take your clothes off]?"

Aimee: "When I was 19, I had all these friends who were 21 who didn't think I could do it. So, [to show them] I got up there [in San Diego] and danced.

"I had a girlfriend who was approached by a modeling scout. I was there [and he didn't pay any attention to Aimee]. She asked me to give her a ride to LA. I'm like, ok, I've never been.

"My boyfriend and I drove her up there and they only wanted to shoot me. I said no. Suze Randall took Polaroids of me and sent them to Penthouse. Suze said, I want to shoot you for Penthouse. I said no. Then I said yes."

Duke: "How did your life change after you appeared in Penthouse?"

Aimee: "I was so young. I cared too much about what people thought of me. I lived in San Diego. Everybody there was spoiled. They were rich. They'd say, 'I'd never take my clothes off for money.' Then five minutes later, they'd be in the bathroom and guys would be doing lines of coke off their ass. Everybody was all judgmental on me.

"I was in a serious relationship. That was my way of expressing myself without being promiscuous.

"I'm totally down with promiscuity but it's not something I could ever do."

Duke: "How does your husband handle your being a sex goddess?"

Aimee: "He encouraged it."

Duke: "What are your ambitions?"

Aimee: "I'd like to be a respected woman on the web like Leslie Sharp of Vivid."

6/1/06

Live-Blogging AVN Afternoons

I tune in to YNOTradio.com at 1 p.m. to hear people talking over the top of the hour news. Then the hosts introduce Holly Randall as a photographer and "director." Yeah, Holly's a director like I'm a moral leader and Herschel Savage is the equal of Robert DeNiro.

I've been listening for 15 minutes and yet to hear anything compelling.

Snore.

This is my first time and last time listening to this show.

The first 20 minutes are a clumbsy read of of previously published news articles and party updates while the advertising for the show boasts that it puts you ahead of the curve. If you want the porn news, you can catch it in a minute or two by scanning the news sites. Who wants to waste 20 minutes having yesterday's news read to you by people with no radio skills?

1:25 p.m. Holly comes on.

MJ McMahon: "You knew we'd have to talk about Luke."

Holly: "I figured that would come up."

Aimee Sweet: "Let's get it over with. Luke's blog Lukeisback.com always has little anecdotes about you. What exactly is your relationship with Luke?"

Holly: "Luke and I are very good friends. I threw him a 40th birthday party at my house Monday. It was the first time I'd seen Luke as the center of attention. Usually he's there merely as the observer and leaves. Usually the model is the center of attention.

"When he first walked in, he was so excited about his party, you know how Rodney Dangerfield was in Caddyshack? He's cracking jokes. He goes, 'I said to Holly the other day, 'Can I buy you a drink?' She said no. It hurts my legs. 'It makes them swell?' 'No, it makes them spread.'

"Luke, that was a great joke. I've been repeating it constantly."

Aimee: You have your conversations with Luke posted on his website.

MJ: "What's up with that? Does that ever get annoying or intrusive?"

Holly: "We've had our clashes about it. But I'm a very open person. I'll tell you anything about my life. I don't have anything to hide. I don't take myself as seriously as most people do. When I'd read something about me that was funny and slightly disparaging, I would laugh harder than anybody else."

Aimee: "Did Luke ever write anything that pissed you off?"

Holly: "He did go into a little bit too intimate of detail about one of our sessions. I asked him to remove, which he promptly did. But of course he's going to have it in the last chapter of his next book."

MJ: "If you need something taken down from Luke's website, call Holly Randall."

1:28 p.m. Now I'm embarrassed. I can't believe I've been ripping on Holly's friend earlier in this blog.

MJ: "You said you guys were friends. I heard you dated for a while."

Holly: "Yeah. I said we were friends now.

"We had actually met at AVN. We were walking down the red carpet [at the awards]. It was my first time walking down the red carpet. I was dazzled. He stopped us and interviewed us for 30 seconds. He hardly asked us anything. We were obviously not interesting to him.

"I didn't remember that meeting because it was such a hectic night.

"When I met him again at the Nightmoves awards [ten months later], that's when we started talking. Luke and I live in a parallel universe. We've very similar in a lot of ways. I've never felt like I belonged anywhere. Luke's always had that feeling as well.

"When we were at the show, he was standing there reading in the corner and I was feeling really out of place. And so I went up to him and started talking and found out that we had a lot more in common. He seemed easier for me to relate to than a lot of other people there.

"That's how we started. We kept talking when we came back. You know, one day we were hanging out on the couch watching a movie and one thing led to another. You know how I am. I'm a little aggressive. It was totally my fault. What was Luke going to do?"

Aimee: "It would be hard to say no to you. Such an interesting topic. I hate to leave it."

MJ: "Let's talk about it more.

"I asked Luke to come on this show and he declined. But here he is today. He showed up [in the chat room] for Holly."

Holly: "Hey Luke, what's up with that? Are you too good for AVN Afternoons? Huh? Are you too big for being on the E! True Hollywood Story?"

MJ: "How do I put this politically correct? Luke doesn't have a lot of fans."

Holly: "That's a good way to put it."

MJ: "What's it like to date somebody like that?"

Holly: "It was hard. My parents would have people pull them aside and say, 'Do you know your daughter is dating Luke? He's evil.' My mother got into a tizz because it's easy for her to get into a tizz. I said, 'I'm a big girl. I know what I'm doing. He's not as horrible and vicious as everybody says he is.'

"Obviously he has done many things to many people. Back in his day, say, ten years ago, there were some pretty crazy things he did that I'm like, 'Ohmigod, I'm so glad I didn't meet that guy.'

"But he's a good guy and we get along fine. Ultimately, I don't give a damn what other people think."

Aimee: "The first time I met Luke was at Porn Star Karaoke. I'd heard about him but he was very nice to me. He posted a little interview about me."

Holly: "He asked me for an interview before I met him in Tampa. My publicist was like, 'You can do an interview but be careful because nothing is off the record with Luke.' Everybody was telling me not to do it. I was thinking, god, is this guy a big bad scary wolf? So I was kinda fascinated. When I met him in Tampa, I wanted to get to know him. Everybody is always much deeper than they appear to be on the surface.

"He writes about what he hears. He doesn't censor so much."

Aimee: "I assumed he was just a punk but I was totally wrong."

Holly: "I write as well, obviously not as prolifically or as well as he does, but sometimes he won't actually say to you what he's thinking but then he'll write it on his website. I'm the same way. Sometimes it is easier for me to say things in writing than in person.

"He can trick people into trusting him when you first meet him because he seems that way, but then he spills the beans."

MJ: "Last question on Luke. With all the ramblings on the site focused on you, I would see some of them from time to time and my first impression was -- this guy is a little obsessed, even a little stalkerish. Is that the case?"

Holly: "He's the anti-stalker. Perhaps he'll write things but if I did anything that he felt blew him off, he would not contact me, he would not call me. He's not the type of guy who shows up at your house. No, he's not a stalker at all. He tends to write in free-thought..."

1:33 p.m. I'm really enjoying this interview. I'm getting huge narcissistic supply as the conversation is about Holly and me.

1:38 p.m. Holly: "I had a great childhood. I rode horses. I was like any other kid except my parents did porn, and we had to hide that from some people."

Holly doesn't like her voice but she's a terrific interview subject (on the radio or anywhere). She has a great Southern accent she can put on and she puts all of her magnetic personality into what she says (when she wants to).

When you get Holly on the phone and her voice is flat, you need to let her attend to what's on her mind because she won't be listening to you carefully.

When you spend time with Holly, she's not present much of the time. She has a rich inner life. If you want to get close to her, that's a frustrating and ultimately unsatisfying quest. So make sure you are OK with yourself and when Holly shuts you out, leave her alone and go do your own thing. The more you try to hunt her down, the more she'll elude you.

With Holly as with anyone, you can either appreciate what you have with her, or you can obsess about what you don't have.

I feel guilty listening to Holly because she's more kind and careful about what she says about me than I've been with her.

Holly often tries to trick me into saying something disparaging of someone's looks but I always refuse. I email her: " I wish I could grow this pecular virtue of mine and add to it."

Holly (who had few friends growing up) says on the show that no kids in her schools were prohibited from hanging out with her because her parents were in porn.

Holly: "I've always been obsessed with visual images. At the beginning I thought I wanted to be a model. Most young girls do.

"I became hooked [on photography] when I took my first photography class at age 12."

MJ: "Did you expect to follow in your mother's footsteps?"

Holly: "No. I was going to do the exact opposite. I wanted to be a fashion photographer. I just heard so many nightmare stories... I thought, I'm not sure I'm the cut-throat person who can go out there and make it. I'm not sure if I want to deal with all the attitudes and the hierarchical standards they have..."

Aimee Sweet was Holly's first nude model.

Holly: "My mom can't write and my dad can't shoot.

"I've got the short legs. The whole reason my mother said she married my father was so her children could get his long legs. I got screwed. My brother and sister got the long legs."

Holly says she did not like the Brooks Institute. "It was very conservative. I loved UCLA. I loved literature."

MJ: "What kind of porn does Holly Randall like?"

Holly: "I like the dirty stuff... Gangbangs." But she doesn't like ugly guys.

Holly: "It's annoying when a guy walks around naked with nothing but socks, Luke!"

That really annoyed her but I have cold feet even when I'm doing hot things.

Holly did not like my sweats that were held on by elastic. She gave me a pair that you have to tie up. She may prefer that look but they are a pain to wear because you have to untie them to go to the bathroom, etc. I prefer elastic.

Holly: "What I shoot is the opposite of what I like...

"I like the sex to be hot and on the rough side, but not too rough.

"I've tried to make our movies more hardcore and my mom says, 'Holly, that's so bloody rude. You're such a pervert.' Both my parents say I'm a pervert. I say, 'Come on, mom, can't we do ATM?' "No! That's gross.'"

Holly says her mom has the philosophy that you don't go to bed mad. "We're both hot-tempered."

But when Holly's mad or hurt, you may not hear from her for days. She's not someone who must confront and solve an issue when she feels wounded. She'll retreat and isolate herself from you, take a few days to heal, and then come back if she's still interested in you.

Holly: "I love my job. Eight years later, I still look forward to going to work."

The AVN Afternoon hosts can be fun when they are interviewing someone lively like Holly. I just wish they'd cut out the crap.

Holly: "I'm afraid of the Bush administration coming after me [if she did her own line of gonzo lines]. I have such a dirty mind, I'd give JM Productions a run for their money."

She laughs.

Holly writes on her suze.net chatboard: "No, we won't have a booth this year [at Erotica LA]... Pure Play will and I might make that my pit stop area, but I won't be hanging out there. I'll show up for one day to check out some new models but then I'll be out of there. I don't like porn conventions, especially if I'm not exibiting. Unless I'm working, I spend little time around the biz."

Holly's photo of Shay Laren. More.